Masked God
The Masked God is a minor, undivided Chaos God born from the collective, unconscious fear of the unknown that all sentient life holds. The Masked God is known as such because none can comprehend what it truly it is. Its true form, much like the fear that it embodies, is something beyond a mortal's understanding, and as such, it takes the form of more familiar fears dredged up from the mind of its worshipers. Uniquely, unlike most other Chaos powers, the Masked God has no interest in competition, perhaps because the idea is too comprehensible and mundane for the being. However, because of this, it acts as an ally to any god that happens to take its fancy. Chaos, and any God of Chaos will have elements that are incomprehensible to mortals, and will make them fear and abhor it, feeding the Masked One with their horror. In this way, while the Masked God is by far the weakest of the Chaos Gods, even the minor ones, it has no enemies, and all the other gods are willing to ally with it to bring its skills to the battlefield. The Masked God embodies dread, different to the more immediate and visceral terror of Malice. It feeds on paranoia, existential fear and the fear of the unknown, making it nearly as incomprehensible as Tzeentch. Its minions, mortal and immortal are adept at blending in with their victims, slowly wearing them down from within, and then striking at their weakest moment. The Masked God smiles upon those who can play mind games with their foes, or make them turn against each other out of fear. Its holy color is dark amber, and its holy number isn't known but is suspected to be theoretical. Avatars By its very nature, the Masked God has no true form. As a being defined by fear of the unknown, it cloaks itself in the nightmares of those who perceive it, weaving intricate bodies out of the combined fears of its worshipers as it is summoned into the world. The Masked One, as befitting a god of chaos, scoffs at physics as well as logic, and its bodies can be mundane and unpleasant to mind-shatteringly horrifying. Below are listed some of its notable Avatars. It assumes a new one each time it is summoned from the combined, subconscious fear of all those who call it. Note that despite being the weakest Chaos God, a full manifestation of the Masked One is still more powerful than any Daemon Prince or Greater Daemon and will often be enough to subsume entire systems. Fortunately it has only been fully summoned rarely. The Skin-Thief An avatar seen on Hive Eupraxis in M32. Gang warfare, the tension and politics of the underhive and the brutality and oppression of their betters allows a cell of the Masked Cult to invent an avatar of the God, the Skin-Thief, and popularize it as an urban legend. The idea of the Skin-Thief, an unstoppable killer in the Underhive gave birth to an avatar of the God, in the form of a humanoid in aristocratic outfit, stalking the shadows of the Hive. This avatar was notable for draining it's victims of their organs, before wearing their skin and appearing to become them. The entity quickly multiplied exponentially via some form of abominable mitosis. Within months, the planet had torn itself apart in the throws of paranoia, as the Masked God's hand descended as a plague of nearly invisible serial killers. This avatar has been sighted on different hive worlds even in M41. The Amber King An entity known to have existed in truly ancient times, before humanity even left Terra. This entity takes the form of a malignant memetic hazard, embodied in a text, titled some variant of The Amber King. This text can take any form, from a grimoire, a manual, or even a play. Reading this text is instantly mentally obliterating for the unlucky recipient, though occasionally, this irreversible madness can manifest as subtle psychopathy. The Amber King as a text can be burned or shredded, but it will always return in some form. The words and writings of those afflicted with The Amber King's ''madness are equally dangerous. Biohazard-3974 This unknown contagion, after analysis of the Ordo Malleus, was confirmed to have been a microscopic avatar of the Masked God. Manifesting as a malignant packet of diseased DNA, this plague wiped out several planets before it was caught. Believed to be a collaboration between Nurgle and the Masked God, the disease transforms its victims into flesh-eating sociopaths, though with no outward symptoms, making it very difficult to detect. This disease is believed to be still at large. The Blank Maiden An entity manifesting for a very specific purpose, the Blank Maiden must be specifically summoned to do its grisly work. The ritual for its summoning is difficult to perform, requiring the blood of a person who died of fright to coat a full-length mirror. When the arcane poem is performed, the avatar of the Masked God appears behind the summoner's reflection as a gaunt, faceless girl wrapped in sallow, yellowing robes. The Blank Maiden is a death sentence, one that can be inflicted on any other being in the same plane of existence by speaking their name before her. The victim begins seeing her face in reflective surfaces as the entity draws closer and closer in the Warp, before it claims them, body and soul, dragging them into a mirror and devouring them. REDACTED This entity has no name, and indeed to give it one is very dangerous indeed. Simply knowing about this entity, referring to it in any way or reading about it will bring a person to the entity's attention, and from there, it slowly stalks its prey until it reaches them, to an unknown end. Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus have attempted to combat the entity by erasing and censoring all mention of it, but somehow, rumors of it seem to surface in populated areas, in one form or another. Daemons of the Masked One Daemons of the Masked God are horrifying creatures drawn from a madman's hallucination. Each one has recognizably human elements, twisted into new forms, following a surreal nightmare-logic. Daemons of the Masked God are masters of stealth and hiding until the time is right to strike at their prey. Strangers Strangers are the Masked God's Lesser Demons, malignant pockets of perversity given life and freedom. Each one is a shapeshifter, and is capable of blending into mortal society, appearing differently to each onlooker. The Daemon always looks subtly uncanny, however, and when they drop their disguise, they look like nightmarish parodies of the onlooker's species, with mishmashed features and elongated, disproportionate limbs. While disguised, Strangers are uniquely capable of surviving for extended periods in the Materium, making them excellent spies and assassins. Blasphemy The rarely seen Greater Daemon of the Masked God, it is undecided if each Blasphemy looks different, if each one is the same creature in a different form, or if they are indeed not a creature, and merely a physical embodiment of some primal foulness. Suffice to say, the Blasphemy is a towering colossus drawn from the most repellent nightmares of sentient life. Each one is maddening to look at in its sheer alien nature, foul on such a primal level that a mere glance at its shifting mass can drive a person to madness. Each one shifts constantly, each time becoming some kind of nightmarish conglomerate of shapes and features, always painfully horrid to look at. The Masked Cult The Masked Cult are cultists of Chaos Undivided who specialize in stealth and terror tactics. Being masters of the causing and feeding paranoia to their God, guerilla warfare, social engineering and acts of outright terror are more than within the purview of these fanatics, who aim to slowly increase a society's stress and fear until it implodes. The Masked Cult maintain vast networks of spies at all levels of society, and it is rumored by some that they may have ties to the dreaded Alpha Legion. Artifacts * 'The Amber King '''- As an avatar of the Masked God, any book or Grimoire containing the text of any incarnation of The Amber King can be considered a potent artifact of the Faceless One. One notable Chaos Grimoire containing many passages from this accursed text is the ''Codex Inferna''.'' * '''The Pallid Mask '- A silken mask, dyed a sickly shade of yellow, is capable of making its wielder completely invisible to all manner of sensory equipment, including eyes, cameras, and even the senses of Psykers. Naturally, this is a highly sought-after artifact for assassins, and it has traded hands many times since its creation. ++MORE TO COME++ Carcosa Carcosa was once a city, believed to be the first city in which the Masked God was fully summoned. The description of the place is detailed in all incarnations of The Amber King, obviously making it somewhat difficult to recover. After being consumed by a swirling vortex of Warp energy, the city has become the small pocket dimension that the Masked God claims dominion over in the Warp. Carcosa is a nightmare city that follows no rules of architecture and physics. It is forever shrouded in an endless, sickly-yellow sunset, and every nook and alley hides Strangers, who watch and stalk any visitors, invited or otherwise. At its center sits the Saffron Throne, the seat of the Masked God, and any who can find it may be able to seek its favor. Relationships The Masked God seeks neutrality in the Great Game, being uninterested in politics or enemies with other Gods of Chaos. Because each god of Chaos is unknowable in their nature, and terrifying to mere mortals, the Masked God gladly lends his support to any God that it benefits from working with. The Masked God and its servants aid all of Chaos evenly, and quietly build power as they harvest fear, with none to stop them. Quotes Feel free to add your own! Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Gods